Oscars Shock as Category Ends in Tie for First Time in Years

The 2026 Oscar for best live-action short film resulted in expectedly big drama Sunday night when the category resulted in a tie.

A stunned looking Kumail Nanjiani, who presented the category, deftly handled the nearly unprecedented situation when he opened the envelope and declared, “It’s a tie. I’m not joking. It’s actually a tie. So everyone calm down. We’re gonna get through this. Focus up.”

Amid surprised murmurs in the crowd, Nanjiani explained he was going to announce one winner, and they would come up on stage and accept their award, and then he would name a second winner.

The winners were: The Singers (Netflix); Sam A. Davis and Jack Piatt and Two People Exchanging Saliva (Canal+/The New Yorker); Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata. “Thank you to the Academy for supporting a film that is weird and queer and made by a majority of women,” Musteata said.

In between the awards, Nanjiani managed to beat host Conan O’Brien to the best (if obvious) joke:
“Ironically, the award for short film will take twice as long.”

After both awards were presented, O’Brien came back with his own jab: “I just want to say congratulations to both winners — you just ruined 22 million Oscar pools.”

Nanjiani did, however, get some grief on social media for a scripted joke he made just before presenting the category. After setting up the idea that many feature films would be better as short films, he cracked that One Battle After Another could be “One Battle,” and Schindler’s List could have been “Schindler’s Post It.”

Ties have happened six times previously in Oscar history, the most recent being for best sound editing in 2012. It has also happened in the live-action short film category before, back in 1995. Many decades ago, a tie occurred in the best actress (1969) and best actor (1932) categories.

The Singers is about strangers in a bar making a bet about who can sing. While Two People Exchanging Saliva is set in a dystopian world where you’re not allowed to kiss and payments are given in slaps.

According to the BBC citing an Academy librarian, here are the previous Oscar ties: 2012: Best sound editing for Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty. 1994: Best short film (live action) for Frank Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Trevor. 1986: Best feature documentary for Artie Shaw: Time is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America. 1968: Best actress for Katherine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand. 1949: Best documentary for both A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little. 1932: Best actor went to Wallace Beery (The Champ) and Fredric March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).

The 98th edition of the awards, hosted by O’Brien for the second year in a row, aired live on ABC and Hulu from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Here is a complete list of this year’s winners and the star-studded Oscars red carpet 2026 arrivals.